Milford City Council approves new well

A new well will be dug on Washington Street to provide drinking water to the city, according to Milford City Council members.

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By Sarah Barbansarah.barban@doverpost.comTwitter:@SarahDoverPost

Milford Beacon

By Sarah Barbansarah.barban@doverpost.comTwitter:@SarahDoverPost

Posted Apr. 24, 2013 at 5:07 PM
Updated Apr 24, 2013 at 5:10 PM

By Sarah Barbansarah.barban@doverpost.comTwitter:@SarahDoverPost

Posted Apr. 24, 2013 at 5:07 PM
Updated Apr 24, 2013 at 5:10 PM

Milford, Del.

A new well will be dug on Washington Street to provide drinking water to the city, according to Milford City Council members.

Two bids were received for the work, and the city awarded the contract to A.C. Schultes of Delaware. The Bridgeville-based company came in with the lower bit at $139,487, which city council awarded at its Monday meeting. The project will be funded through a state revolving loan through the Office of Drinking Water.

Despite the hefty price, city rates are not expected increase, as payment for these new projects is already factored in, said City Manager Richard Carmean.

The well will be 340 feet deep. Its depth is a major factor in the price, said Erik Retzlaff, an associate of Davis, Bowen & Friedel, Inc., the engineering firm the city of Milford works with.

A significant number of man hours will go into digging the new well, Retzlaff said. First, a hole two inches in diameter will have to be drilled roughly 355 feet into the ground to collect soil samples at various depths to analyze the makeup of the soil.

Then a device called a level transducer will be sent down to identify where the good water is located. The hole will then be expanded using a 22-inch drill bit, he said. A 12-inch casing with two access tubes used to measure water levels will be dropped in the hole.

Retzlaff said that crews will be working round the clock for at least a solid week to get the work done.

The crew will then test the well using a pump and then surge the well to make sure the gravel is packed tightly, before finally concreting everything in place.

This new well will pump water to the new water treatment plant once that project is up and running, Carmean said.

“It’s a lot of work, but the thing is that this is a well that is intended to be there for 50 years,” Retzlaff said.